PERU: State-owned investment agency ProInversión has called a tender for the upgrading and subsequent operation of the 128·7 km Huancayo – Huancavelica railway in the mountainous region east of Lima.
The 30-year public-private partnership would require co-financing to support the budgeted cost of US$263m. ProInversión hopes a contract can be awarded by the end of this year.
The concessionaire will have to procure rolling stock and manage operations. The government has said it expects seven passenger services per day per direction; it will also set the fares.
On the infrastructure side, work will cover the reconstruction of 27 stations, 15 bridges and 38 tunnels and installing more drainage. Lineside embankments and other structural work would be undertaken, as well as a programme to renovate the formation. The signalling system would be renewed and a new repair and maintenance workshop is also to be built.
‘The project is in a fairly mature stage, with all the structuring aspects well defined, and we are working on two key points or critical factors identified in a market sounding exercise, including a geological risk allocation review’, said Gian Carlos Silva, ProInversión’s Project Director.
The Huancayo – Huancavelica railway is one of the highest in the world, with reaching 3 680 m above sea level. Built as a narrow gauge route to serve one of the country’s poorest regions, the line has been operating since 1926 and was not privatised with the rest of the state railway Enafer in 1999, instead being operated by the government through an arm’s length entity.
It was converted from 914 mm gauge to 1 435 mm gauge in a low-cost upgrading scheme completed in late 2011, but ProInversión told Railway Gazette in August 2014 that this project had failed to address the limitations of the railway’s major structures, limiting the quality of service that has been available since.
An interview with ProInversión appeared in the August 2014 issue of Railway Gazette International, which subscribers can access via our digital archive
